Marketplace: News Archives

Monday, August 18, 2003 Listen to the entire show in RealAudio

Newscast Today: Dow rises 90.76 (+0.97%); NASDAQ jumps 37.48 (+2.20%); S&P 500 follows upward 9.07 (+0.92%) Who will bear the cost of upgrading the power grid: consumers or private industry? Marketplace Commentator Vijay Vaitheeswaran provides answers to the origins of last week's blackout Gas industry still reeling from power outage Listen to all newscast items

Features Music Bridge: Pumpkin Lover - Shrimpboat Purchase this music from Public Radio MusicSource Your purchase helps support Marketplace. Sabotage against Iraq's infrastructure is costing the economy billions Fueled by lack of jobs, Iraqi clerics tap into economic discontent: The blaze set by saboteurs last week on the main oil pipeline to Turkey -- costs Iraq 7 million dollars a day in export sales. Today, the U.S. administrator Paul Bremer blamed the attacks on diehard supporters of Saddam Hussein. But there is also unrest among the Shiite Muslims who suffered persecution under the old regime. Reporter: Borzou Daragahi Music Bridge: Eastern - The Church Purchase this music from Public Radio MusicSource Your purchase helps support Marketplace.

Corporate executives sell stocks amid Wall Street rally CEOs and other corporate insiders at companies from Microsoft to Wal-Mart to biotech firm Amgen have been dumping their stock recently: Insider trading is legal as long as it's not based on any secret information outsiders don't have. Of course, insiders may be in the best position to know how their companies are performing, and if their stock is undervalued or overvalued. As Marketplace's Bob Moon explains, analysts who follow the moves that insiders make say corporate bigwigs don't seem all that excited about the stock market rebound. Reporter: Bob Moon Music Bridge: Inside - Terra Deva Purchase this music from Public Radio MusicSource Your purchase helps support Marketplace.

Canadian / U.S trade battle continues U.S. justifies taxes on Canada's subsidized lumber: A major ruling has failed to resolve a bitter trade battle between Canada and the United States. Here's the background: The US slaps a 27 percent tariff on Canadian softwood because, it says, Canada subsidizes its lumber industry. Last week - a panel set up under the North American Free Trade Agreement ruled that the tariffs illegal and order the U.S. Commerce Department to go back to its calculators. But the panel also ruled that Canada does indeed subsidize its lumber industry. So who won? Reporter: Ed Ungar Music Bridge: Wood Song - Indigo Girls Purchase this music from Public Radio MusicSource Your purchase helps support Marketplace.

Media Roundup When it comes to politics, be careful what you wish for. Marketplace host David Brancaccio talks with media analyst Marty Kaplan, who has long lamented the lack of comprehensive political coverage. But now, even though the California recall effort is piquing the interest of news outlets around the world, Martin Kaplan still has a bone to pick with the media. Music Bridge: I Wish - Stevie Wonder Purchase this music from Public Radio MusicSource Your purchase helps support Marketplace.

Tomorrow On Marketplace... What's it like to be a human guinea pig? Believe it or not, some people actually make a career out of clinical studies.